


In Bas Relief

by deliverusfromsburb



Series: Tuesjade Prompts [7]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 18:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13106100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliverusfromsburb/pseuds/deliverusfromsburb
Summary: tuesjade prompt: genesis frog





	In Bas Relief

**Author's Note:**

> Did you know you could just put any words in the title field and no one will stop you? Yeah, I haven't gotten any better at naming these.

The walk to Echidna's lair isn't as bad now that you're pretty sure she's not going to eat you, but you still feel like you don't belong. This isn't your Land. The Mother of Monsters isn't your denizen. (She's properly majestic - Abraxas never put any heart behind it.) Maybe you should worry more about the girl walking next to you, who gave the order that sent fork tines ripping through your chest, but you were moirails with a murderer. It's a little late to get squeamish now.

Heat rises through the floor and makes sweat prickle on your forehead. You swipe at it, and the smear on your hand glints faintly red. Carvings of Bilious Slick metamorphose backwards as you walk deeper toward the planet's core. A faceless Witch of Space set in relief on the wall holds a small frog with eyes of glinting gemstones in her hands, and you stop for a moment, watching its eyes flash and glimmer in the torchlight.

"Is that the final frog?" you ask.

"Yep. The keystone in the whole gene sequence." Jade giggles. "Or key frog. He's not usually made of rock."

This is the frog you never found, the missing DNA that made cancer cells choke the life out of the universe you created. It looks too small to do that kind of damage. "I know I shouldn't have rushed us,” you say, “but it's not like he was over the next hill. We never saw a sign of him. I’m not saying I was expecting neon lights and a red carpet rolled out for questing dumbfucks who are too busy looking up their own asses to track down the local wildlife, but there was _nothing_."

Jade frowns and reaches out to touch the smooth stone figure. "I found him on Earth. It was in my memories, from when I was very young. Did Kanaya ever mention anything like that?"

"No. She wasn't even sure what he'd look like.” The implication hits you like a blow from an indigoblood. Their frog had been on _Earth_? “Are you saying ours might've been on Alternia the whole time?" Was that why you could never find it? Would you have always lost, no matter how many Aradias came back to set things right, no matter if you’d shut up for once when Kanaya told you to stop rushing her and listened? Maybe that should feel like absolution – that it wouldn’t have mattered what you’d done – but the thought makes you even angrier. It’s a twisted game that doesn’t even let you claim your own mistakes.

"Maybe. Or maybe that was one more way our session was broken.” She shrugs. “Nothing has worked the way it should. So I don't know enough to say whether you're off the hook."

“Don’t tell Kanaya about this, ok?” There’s no point in her worrying that she should’ve looked harder back on Alternia, climbed over one last sand dune and found the frog you’d all been missing. She’s carried enough of your problems over the sweeps. "Either way, I made an ass of myself."

You remember dropping Kanaya's last creation into a tank made from one of the glass spheres on Feferi's land. "It's good enough," you'd told her. "The frog won't matter if the Black King turns us into chunky puree spread all over the battlefield." You hadn't known what you were doing. Have you ever? Once you die for good, someone had better put that on your fucking headstone.

"You're not the only one who made mistakes," she says, when you’re silent for a while.

"Your breeding session went better. None of the Seers see anything wrong with the universe we’re making, even if it is going to pop out English like the world’s worst troll Kinder egg.”

“Did you know those were illegal in some places on Earth?”

“You’re shitting me.” Earth leaves its inhabitants in training wheels compared to Alternia, but this has to be a joke.

“I’m afraid not!”

“Was that your mistake? Opening chocolate contraband? I’ll call the human legilascerators on you right now if you want to go quietly.”

Her smile fades. "There was that little hiccup where I shot my frog hunting partner."

"Oh. That." You remember her sobbing while you fired off message after message in the hopes that she'd pick up her phone before Dave’s dream self died too. The log is still in your husktop somewhere, one of the last messages you ever sent her.

  
CG: HARLEY.  
CG: ALTERNIA TO HARLEY.  
CG: JADE.  
CG: STOP HAVING HYSTERICS FOR LONG ENOUGH TO CHECK YOUR MESSAGES, OK? HE DOESN'T HAVE MUCH TIME.  
CG: LOOK, I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO DO THIS, SINCE HE'S A LOT LESS ANNOYING THIS WAY, BUT OUR HANDS ARE TIED HERE.  
CG: TICK FUCKING TOCK, JADE. ANSWER ME.  
GG: WHAT  
GG: DO   
GG: YOU   
GG: WANT??????????  
CG: WOW.  
CG: IS THAT ANY WAY TO START A CONVERSATION?  
GG: first of all you type in all caps ALL THE TIME!!!  
GG: second if you havent noticed i am kind of upset!!!!!  
CG: THAT'S FOR SURE.  
CG: YOU MIGHT WANT TO WIPE YOUR NOSE. IT'S RUNNING.  
CG: YOU DON'T WANT TO RUIN YOUR DRESS.  
CG: THAT'S A NICE ONE BY THE WAY.  
CG: DID YOU PUT IT ON SPECIFICALLY TO SCAMPER AROUND OUT THERE?  
CG: YOU LOOK COLD.  
GG: just leave me alone karkat  
GG: i dont want to talk to anyone right now  
CG: I GET THAT.  
CG: UNFORTUNATELY THIS CONVERSATION HAS TO HAPPEN.  
CG: FUTURE ME HAD IT AND NOW HERE I AM, CURRENT ME, STUCK IN THIS SAME OLD ROUTINE.  
CG: JUST YOU, ME, AND A DEAD BODY STRAPPED DOWN TO THE TRACKS AS THE TIMELINE TRAIN MOTORS OVER US ON ITS QUEST FOR MAXIMUM PERSONAL HUMILIATION.  
CG: FOR SOME REASON PARADOX SPACE HAS DECIDED IT WOULD BE HILARIOUS TO MAKE ME BEG YOU TO SAVE STRIDER'S SORRY ASS.  
CG: DO YOU EVER WONDER IF SKAIA IS HAVING A GOOD OLD GIGGLE AT US FROM WHATEVER METAPHYSICAL PLANE ITS CONSCIOUSNESS RESIDES IN?  
CG: BECAUSE I THINK THAT ALL THE TIME.  
GG: what do you mean save him?  
GG: hes dead  
GG: i  
GG: i killed him  
CG: YEAH, I SAW HOW JACK REDIRECTED YOUR BULLETS.   
CG: THAT WAS COLD BLOODED, YOU'RE A REAL KILLER.  
CG: POINT IS, HIS WAKING BODY'S TOAST, BUT HIS DREAM SELF IS STILL ALIVE.  
GG: his dream self?  
GG: oh  
GG: i sort of forgot about that  
CG: ISN'T IT AMAZING WHAT WE FORGET IN TIMES OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS?  
CG: LIKE HOW TO HOLD A CIVIL CONVERSATION.  
GG: jeez dont be such a pill   
GG: but youre saying hes ok???  
CG: I'M SAYING HE'S ALIVE.   
CG: HE'S NOT OK.  
CG: RIGHT NOW HE'S ENJOYING A SLOW MOTION REPLAY OF GETTING REPEATEDLY SHOT THROUGH THE TORSO.  
CG: IF YOU DON'T MOVE FAST, HE'LL BE DEAD FOR REAL, AND THEN WE'RE ALL DOOMED.  
GG: oh noooooo  
GG: what do i do??  
CG: OK, FIRST LET ME SAY THAT I KNOW FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE WE'VE BEEN HASSLING YOU FOR A WHILE.  
CG: AND YOU DON'T HAVE THAT MUCH OF A REASON TO BELIEVE ANYTHING WE SAY, ESPECIALLY ME.  
CG: AND I WOULDN'T BELIEVE THIS IF SOMEONE TOLD ME EITHER. I HAD TO SEE IT FOR MYSELF.  
CG: BUT I'M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH.  
GG: what???  
CG: YOU HAVE TO KISS HIM.  
GG: ...  
GG: ARGH!!!!!!!  
GG: i cant believe this i cant believe i thought you might actually be trying to be helpful!  
GG: instead youre just making shitty jokes  
GG: its hard to think that even you would be that mean!!!  
GG: and here i was giving you a second chance and thinking you might not be that bad but youre even WORSE  
GG: just go away go away forever  
CG: CALM DOWN. I TOLD YOU IT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE.  
CG: I'M SURE HE KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, BUT APPARENTLY A PAST OR FUTURE VERSION ISN'T GOING TO GIVE YOU THE LOWDOWN, SO IT'S UP TO ME.  
CG: LEAVE IT TO HIM TO BE A PERSONAL PAIN IN MY ASS EVEN IN DEATH.  
CG: ANYWAY, I WATCHED IT HAPPEN MYSELF.  
CG: ONE OF MY *VERY* GOOD FRIENDS DIED RIGHT WHEN WE STARTED THE GAME, AND HIS CLIENT PLAYER SHOWED UP TO DO THE HONORS.  
CG: I DIDN'T GET IT EITHER UNTIL HIS DREAM SELF SHOWED UP.  
CG: APPARENTLY KISSING A DEAD WAKING SELF ACTIVATES THEIR DREAM SELF PERMANENTLY.  
CG: DO THIS AND HE'LL BE UP HAVING A PURPLE PAJAMA PARTY WITH LALONDE ON DERSE.  
CG: DON'T ASK ME WHY IT WORKS THIS WAY. IN MY OPINION, WHOEVER DESIGNED THIS GAME WAS A SICK FUCK.  
CG: BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.  
GG: you really mean it?  
CG:I SWEAR ON THE GRAVE OF MY LUSUS, WHOSE DEATH WAS WAY MORE MY FAULT THAN THE TRAVESTY CURRENTLY IN FRONT OF YOU.  
CG: BESIDES, SHOULDN'T YOU BE USED TO MY TROLLING BY NOW?  
CG: IF I WAS MAKING THIS UP, I'D SUGGEST SOMETHING MUCH MORE DEPRAVED.  
CG: GIVE ME SOME CREDIT HERE.  
GG: that is true...  
CG: I'M GLAD WE'RE IN AGREEMENT.  
CG: CHOP CHOP, HE HASN'T GOT ALL DAY.  
GG: did it work?  
CG: IT ALWAYS HAS BEFORE.  
CG: AS LONG AS THERE'S A DREAM SELF LEFT.  
GG: ...  
GG: thank you  
GG: for telling me  
GG: i didnt know what to do on my own  
CG: WE'RE ALL IN THIS SHIT TOGETHER NOW, AREN'T WE.  
GG: i guess...  
GG: um  
GG: could you  
GG: maybe  
GG: not mention this to anyone?  
GG: if they knew what a crybaby i was or how i panicked... its embarrassing!  
CG: YOUR SECRET IS SAFE WITH ME.  
CG: NOW.  
CG: MAYBE WE SHOULD TURN OUR ATTENTION TO THE MONSTROUS KILLING MACHINE IN THE ROOM.  
GG: you mean jack?

You'd hated the timeline then for making you beg to save his life. It's funny how things turn out, sometimes. "I told you it wasn't your fault, right?"

"Sort of, in a very rude and abrasive way. Getting mad at you helped snap me out of it though, so thanks." She shudders. "I know it worked out in the end, but I can still hear how it sounded."

You nod. The viewport spared you that, but you'd heard Eridan rip right through two people he claimed were friends with a beam of unholy light. None of you watch action movies anymore.

"We buried everyone later," she adds. "In case you were worried about that."

You hadn't been until she said it. Now you wonder if you've walked over the spot where he died, or if you've stepped on anyone's graves. You avoided spots on the meteor where you’d had to scrub off blood, but you never knew where Gamzee might have stashed the corpses. It’s bad enough that you might see shades of old dead friends, pull their belongings out of a treasure chest, or turn around and see a chalk drawing Nepeta left behind. You don’t like knowing their bodies are moldering around somewhere too.

She starts walking again, and you have to jog to keep up. "What will it be like?" she asks. "This is my first baby universe."

Your first is dead. "It's good enough," you'd said. It hadn't looked sick.

“It’s not that complicated once it gets going. As easy as opening your hand.” The two of you walk deeper toward the core of the planet, and as the heat surrounds you, you lead her through the last steps you have to complete to win this game. You’ll activate the Forge. You’ll release the grist rigs. You’ll perform the Ultimate Alchemy. And this time, when the fireworks go off and the smoke clears, it’ll be perfect. It has to be.


End file.
